June 21, 2012

At the beginning of his career, just some years before to form the Giant Sun Trolley and meet Glen Sweeney, Dave Tomlinworked as a session man playing the clarinet for some jazz bands.

Bob Wallis

One of them was leaded by trumpeter Bob Wallis(1934-1991), "a feisty British jazzman who had a handful of chart successes in the early 1960s, during the “trad” boom that directly preceded the coming of the Beatles and all the other Merseyside groups that decimated the number of UK jazz bands at that time".

"Wallis was a trumpeter with real drive and energy - one of his heroes was Henry Red Allen - as well as being full of life, remarkable for someone who suffered from ill health for most of his years. He played with his own band for much of that time, the Storyville Jazzmen, though earlier and later in his career he played with other bands as well.Wallis was born in Bridlington, East Riding of Yorkshire, in 1934, where his father eventually became harbour master. At an early age he joined the local Salvation Army Band with his local friend, Keith Avison, who was to play trombone with Wallis for a number of years. By the age of 20 he had discovered the world of jazz and set up his own band in Bridlington which also played in nearby Hull.

"He went to Denmark for a short spell and made his first couple of records there - as vocalist with the “Washboard Beaters”. The skiffle craze was rampant at the time and the Wallis singing style was some of the most idiosyncratic ever heard. Once you grew used to the gravelly-voiced style, however, it became clear that the singing was essentially melodious and that Wallis could certainly carry a tune.

"Back in the UK, he went to London and played for a short time with Ken Colyer's Omega Brass as well as joining Acker Bilk. These bands were recording mainly for the specialist 77 Records label. Ultimately he joined up with Hugh Rainey's All Stars (Ginger Baker was their drummer at the time) and shortly afterwards the band changed its name to The Storyville Jazzmen, fronted by Wallis. In 1959 the band recorded an LP for Top Rank, “Everybody Loves Saturday Night” which entered the top ten album charts. A single followed and then the band moved to the more jazz-oriented Pye label where they made three albums and a number of singles which also had modest chart success.

" (...) When the trad boom ended in 1963, Wallis and the band, who had been TV regulars as well as having a long summer season at the London Palladium, effectively broke up. Wallis played with one or two other bands before moving to the Continent where he spent most of his remaining years, still blowing up a storm with reconstituted versions of the Storyville Jazzmen. Occasionally these bands included former colleagues, such as Keith Avison and Pete Gresham. Drummer Alan Poston was still playing with the band when it made its final recordings in the mid eighties. Clarinettist Forrie Cairns was also with the band for much of this time.

"Ultimately Bob settled in Zurich with a residency at the Casa Bar, where he finally found his spiritual home, much appreciated by residents and visitors alike. He continued to make records for European labels such as Storyville, WAM and Pebe, but the chart appearances were long gone. Nevertheless the band remained true to the Wallis ideals, with a driving style that owed much to his energy and fine sense of humour. Phil Kent, who was the bass-player with Bobs band during their residency in Zurich, is one of the few remaining members of the Storyville Jazzmen. He is still playing bass, and lives in Lydeard St Lawrence, near Taunton, Somerset.

"When it became clear in 1990 that his ill health was not going to improve, he returned to England with his wife, Joyce, where he died in hospital in 1991. His long battle with illness was over but his records attest to the fact that Wallis was one of the great British jazzmen of his time. His son, Jay, carries on the family tradition of playing trumpet" ("All about jazz" Web site, http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=11743).

The CD cover where the tracks are taken.

From one of the rare Bob Wallis' sessions survived, here we have three tracks recorded in London on May 20th and June 1st, 1959withDave Tomlinon clarinet, Avo Avison (trombone), Pete Gresham (piano), Hugh Rainey (banjo), Brian 'Drag' Kirby, Kenny Buckner (drums) and Bob Wallis on trumpet.

Funny to know that Dave had forgotten these jolly recordings and it's been a pleasure for him to listen to them...

WRITE TO GHETTORAGA

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About the editor

Luca Chino Ferrari (b. 1963) is an Italian (underground) paperback writer.
Since 1985 he has written and translated books about folk and rock musicians as Third Ear Band, Robyn Hitchcock, Captain Beefheart, Tim Buckley, Nick Drake, Syd Barrett & the Pink Floyd for the main Italian home publishing. He met Syd Barrett in 1986 and did contribute to the reunion of the Third Ear Band during the '80s. His last book, published in 2015 for English Gonzo Multimedia, is a biography about the English talented jazz piano player Mike Taylor. He runs a personal Web site (in Italian) at http://la-dea-bicefala.webnode.it/

NEW THIRD EAR BAND RECORD ON SALE!

Click on the picture to buy the CD.

TEB recording at Abbey Road Sudios in February 1971

click on the picture to watch the video!

Paul Buckmaster at Hyde Park (June 7th, 1969).

"Third Ear Band music is a reflection of the universe as magic play illusion simply because it could not possibly be anything else. Words cannot describe this ecstatic dance of sound, or explain the alchemical repetiton seeking and sometimes finding archetypal formes, elements and rhythms...".

Third Ear Band live at Hyde Park (June 7th,1969)

Read "Necromancers of the drifting West"!!!

A book on the Third Ear Band edited by Luca Ferrari (published by Stampa Alternativa, Rome 1997). WITH THE FIRST ORIGINAL VERSION OF "ABELARD & HELOISE" SOUNDTRACK!

Third Ear Band at the Roundhouse (London, May 30th 1969).

As alike or unlike as blades of grass or clouds...

"The music is the music of the Druids, released from the unconscious by the alchemical process, orgasmic in its otherness, religious in its oneness communicating beauty and magic via abstract sounds whilst playing without ego enables the musicians to reach a trance-like stage, a "high" in which the music produces itself. Each piece is as alike or unalike as blades of grass or clouds".

Pseudo-mystical...

“The trouble is that you can't be mystical without being called pseudo-mystical, and it's the fault of our previous education. I'm at Glastonbury most of the time, but we're all completely honest about it. We'll even use it honestly to make money, because the ancient Egyptians who were into it all said that you had to be rich because only then can you resist temptation”.

"ALCHEMY"

"Alchemy" (Harvest 1969)

A block to communication.

“I've always felt that music should be pure. If you have lyrics, you are preaching in a way. Somehow words are a block to communication. It's almost impossible for me to explain exactly how I feel about this, that's why I'm a musician. The only way to really understand what I mean, is to firstly listen to a pop group and then listen to us, and then I hope you will know what we're trying to say."

NOTES FROM OVERGROUND

“No announcements, numbers lasting 15 to 20 minutes, art form or con?

This might be valid criticism of (A) Thunderstorm (B) a cricket (C) Third Ear Band.

Their approach to music is different because there is no duality, no conflict between the natural element of chance and the human element of control, did the moon ask to be reflected in the water? If it wasn’t for the trees would the wind know when it was blowing? Paul Minns says there are some very beautiful forests in Hyde Park, trying to put titles to music is rather like trying to answer the question where does my hand when it becomes my fist”.

The Centipede

"The Centipede was happy, quite, until a Toad in fun said: "Pray, which leg goes after which?".This worked his mind to such a pitch, he lay distracted in a ditch considering how to run".(Third Ear Band, 1970)

TEB at Isle of Wight Festival, August 1969 (photo: Barry Plummer).

"Music from Macbeth" (Harvest 1972)

OTHER TEB related videos on You Tube

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Third Ear Band - "Experiences" (Harvest 1976)

WEIRD SCENES

“We'd rather people called us a pop group. We do ragas, that aren't really ragas at all, and unless we get a turned on promoter, we get into some weird scenes. At Norwich once, when the promoter saw the audience sitting down and closing their eyes to our music, he accused us of putting them to sleep! Complete paranoia. So I imagine we wouldn't do too well on the Pop Proms”.

VERY MUCH UNDERGROUND

“It's just a question of advertising. We've stayed very much Underground - no photos - and I think this was necessary so people wouldn't put us in a bag. We'd rather the just came up and heard us without ANY preconceived ideas. I suppose it is a bit shattering to see violins and cellos”.

Third Ear Band - "New Forecasts from the Third Ear Almanac" (ADN Records 1989)

90% improvisation...

"I'd say ninety per cent of our music is improvisation. It's not really Indian music, although we use a drone instead of the usual bass line riffs. The music draws from everywhere.

"I think our appeal is that audiences can draw their own thing from us. We make no announcements and none of the numbers have titles. People in colleges we play come up after and say they can get fantastic images in their mind when they listen. We can offer a complete dream. The old Celtic bards used to have the same ability".

MUSIC OF THE SPHERES

“Third Ear Band’s new album “Magic Music” isabout music as pure vibrations, as such it can be linked with colour because colour is vibration. It can even be linked to the music ofthe spheres which states that the vibrations of the planets can be heard with the third ear (silence). The free ragas that we play are modal, each note can be heard as a sound-colour that produces its own mood.Our rhythms come from all overthe world, and we use these ideasand many others to try to make a new world music”.